”Is this anise hyssop?” I held the jar in my hands as anticipation flooded through me. If it was, it was a very effective expectorant. Kian had been having congestion the past few weeks, and every spell he used to fight it wore off after a day or two. My sweet necromancer had allergies.
“Yes! I get a shipment of it every couple of months. It’s usually the first to fly off the shelves.” She cackled. “You want it?”
I nodded my head. “Yes. Oh, and do you have any passionflower?”
She smiled, and her crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes creased. “I kept two jars full just for you.”
“Really?” I squealed, bouncing on the heels of my feet.
“I knew you’d be back. You were so sad when you came last time and we were out.”
It was so sweet of her to do that when she hadn’t known me at all. Not even Alice would hold back herbs I had asked for if someone had come looking for it. “But you had plenty of alternatives that were sufficient.”
“But no passionflower.” She wriggled her finger before I followed her down the aisle to the back, where her register was.
The shop was homey. It didn’t feel like a shop at all, and that’s what I liked the most about it. Or maybe it was because it reminded me of the shop I’d grown up working at in the Arctic Wolf Village. Shelves lined the walls full of jars of herbs, and there were cardboard boxes full of different foliage. The floors were creaky wood, and the walls were the same type of wooden panels.
“How’ve you lot been?” she asked as she pecked away at the keyboard of the register. “I heard about what happened with the dragon attack. I was so relieved that it wasn’t you or your friend.”
I sucked my lip into my mouth and bit. To be honest, everything that had happened within the academy had made that incident pale in comparison. I couldn’t grasp how much danger my life had been in since being marked for Fate Hollow, but the good massively outweighed the bad, so I didn’t try to dwell on it. “Thank you for your kind words.”
“Kind?” She snorted, handing me a receipt for the items. “Listen here, missy, any soul worth their weight in magical essence would be happy that someone didn’t end up under a dragon’s claw. It’s not kind, it’s common courtesy.”
A vacant smile spread over my lips. Common courtesy? Had the village been so bad that they couldn’t even spare me that? Now that I had left that suffocating environment, I’d realized just how badly I had been treated there. But I also knew other people had it worse. I was lucky enough to get away.
Glancing over the list of items on the receipt, I almost didn’t notice the two jars of passionflower weren’t added, and I opened my mouth to tell her when she held up a shaky hand.
“Your essence has changed since you first came here. At first, you had a dark, fragmented bond seeping from you that worried me. But now, you have three strong matebonds trailing out of you, and four lighter bonds trickling out as well. One of them is attached to the werewolf you came in with.” She pointed at Lachlan and smirked. “The passionflower is a mating gift. My mate is a bear shifter. I know how special that is. Consider this my congratulations.”
My eyes burned with hot tears as I stared at the woman in front of me. Black hair fell straight to her shoulders, and blue eyes full of kindness stared back at me. She was frail, but not in a weak way, more in a manner that came with age.
She looked nothing like Alice, and yet, being around this witch made me miss my guardian. An ungrateful piece of me wished Alice had been like Jan.
”Is that not to your satisfaction?” She asked, her lips pulling into a frown. “I could just give you the whole order free, but I didn’t—”
“No,” I sputtered. “That’s not it at all! I’m just so thankful.Thank you so much,but you really don’t have to do that.”
My chest squeezed as I thought of Alice. Grayson had really done a number on me when it came to her. Rowan had kept her pinky bone locked away in hopes that if we could return it to her, maybe we could reattach it. Hot tears ran down my cheeks, and Jan’s eyes widened.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“No, no. You’re okay. You just… I’m not sure if it’s you or the shop, but I’m just remembering someone very dear to me.” I hurriedly wiped at my eyes.
Lachlan’s scent surrounded me, and two large arms wrapped around my shoulders from behind. “What’s wrong, Wren?”
“I’m thinking of Alice,” I murmured as a stab of guilt hit my chest.
He clicked his tongue. ”Is there a spell to be able to see someone and what they’re doing right this second?”
“I haven’t heard of one,” Trixie said as she came down the aisle and up to us. Callie and Samson stayed by the door.
“Of course there is!” Jan brushed her palms together with a smirk toward Trixie.
“Seriously?” Trixie’s mouth fell open.
“This old witch knows some special spells.” Jan snickered.
“Why don’t we do the spell to see Alice? If Wren’s worried, wouldn’t that make her feel better?” Lachlan asked the two witches.
